Hi, would you give details of this study please Linear? This does not correspond with the reality within my own country.
See the study
here Consider the work of pastors and laypeople often volunteering to preach the word of God to prisoners and hopefully get them saved and change their lives and gain some meaning/hope. In fact, this is a ministry. So if what you say is true, why then for the call for such a ministry if more Christians committed crimes than atheists?
Perhaps it is to get them to come back to Christ after they turned away. We could speculate all day about why those preachers are there. Maybe because they don't want to risk being a goat.
Secondly. If a person truly took onboard Christ, they would not be out there committing crimes and outdoing the atheists and any fall from grace is regretted and repented by such - if in fact they are sincere. So the word "Christian" can be thrown around by anybody, but may not mean they are sincere. There are many practical atheists around who toss around "yeah I'm a Christian" whilst they live completely contrary to Christ.
And we all know some pose as "redeemed" to fool others too. A well known trick. But let us not confuse sincere Christianity with the greater committing of crimes. This is dishonest.
This is called the "True Scotsman defence." You say a Christian wouldn't do/believe something. I show you an example of a Christian doing/believing just that something. You then say "He wasn't a 'true' Christian". So, what is the criteria for a 'true' Christian? How do I tell him from someone who just says he is a "Christian".
"True" Christians would never massacre American Indians or forcibly make them study the Bible. Those people weren't true Christians.
True Christians would never burn someone at the stake.
True Christians would never torture someone to make them confess Christ.
True Christians would never arrest Joseph Smith and then leave him to the crowd to murder.
Yet, many of the people who did just those things thought they were true Christians. They prayed daily in many cases.
None of those people were true Christians by your definition. So true Christians never sin? Never give in to hate or angry words?
The point being there is no means of determining if someone is a "true" Christian.
What's in a name, unless the word is written in our hearts? So in other words, it's just people committing crimes because in one way or another, they are living outside of the word of God.
You have a means of determining if the Word is written in my heart? Well, maybe you don't think it is. How about CTD's heart, or Russ' heart...or even SoSick's?
Again, please provide the studies that support your claims, since the teachings of Christ are completely contrary to crime and preach the opposite. There are the true Christians, who far from committing crimes, devote their life teaching the ways of Christ, hoping to turn such criminals away from sin and to the light of Christ.
I can't produce a study that meets your criteria because it seems that your criteria requires that the moment a person commits a crime or gets divorced, they could not have been a Christian.
If I became an atheist, according to this study you speak of, would I suddenly be less criminally inclined? Would an atheist who commits their life to Christ become suddenly criminally inclined?
I never said that. In fact, I said the opposite. The study just says that in countries with higher rates of religeous adherents, crime, divorce rates, and sexually transmitted disease rates were higher.
This is ludicrous. I, like anybody, have weaknesses and inclinations and often it is God that sets me straight, gives me strength and a moral compass and causes me to consider more deeply and seriously sin, the impact of it, and upon others - keeps me much more aware of the temporary and the eternal and how my behaviour affects others (my own sins). Without Him? Hmmmmm, I was spiritually blind.
Agreed that this true of me also.
Whatever studies these are - if in fact legitimate? Would still be bogus in respect of describing a sincere Christian walking with Christ. So again, they would continue to be meaningless - since Christians in name, walking in practical atheism do not count as a true depiction of Christianity and the teachings of Christ in no way endorse, support or encourage criminal behaviour, but instead give one many more means and reasons to turn from such.
The studies dealt with statistics from surveys that asked how much each person went to church, believed in the literal Bible, and prayed. Didn't really ask if they were a Christian, per se. I guess people could lie about their belief in the Bible and their church/prayer time, but why would they when asked by a survey representative?
